The KCK website published excerpts of a conversation between Xebat Andok, a member of the KCK Executive Council, and Özgur Sherker, a member of the Komalên Ciwan Coordination, about the importance of Abdullah Öcalan's prison writings to the world.

Xebat Andok

"Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] was captured and handed over to the Turkish state as a result of an international conspiracy involving dozens of countries. Since then, Rêber Apo has been under severe isolation for 25 years in the Imrali system, which was established by the capitalist hegemonic powers.

Kurdistan’s division into four parts led to the implementation of the genocide plan against the Kurdish people. It was Rêber Apo who was trying to save the Kurdish people from the clutches of genocide. Today, everyone in the world talks about Kurdistan and the resistance of the Kurdish people. This was achieved through the struggle and efforts of Rêber Apo and the martyrs.

The Kurdish people’s struggle is the result of the struggle initiated by Rêber Apo. Today, he represents the free Kurds and the free and democratic Kurdistan. Without him, there would be neither the PKK nor free Kurds. It is obvious how the Kurds have become a symbol of hope for all humanity. Rêber Apo represents democratic and social values, a free, equal, democratic, and just system against the male-dominated system and the nation-state. Rêber Apo is very aware of the reality of the conspirators, and he has managed to write his prison writings with a deep historical and philosophical consciousness under the circumstances of Imrali. His prison writings are a defense for the Kurds, the entire Middle East, and humanity, but above all, they are a defense of women and all the oppressed of the hierarchical statist system. Rêber Apo called his prison writings a Manifesto of Democratic Civilization. That is why the prison writings are read in so many parts of the world today, why so many people see Rêber Apo as a pioneer of their own struggle, and why they not only demand his physical freedom but stand up for it. Like I pointed out before, the Manifesto of Democratic Civilization developed by Rêber Apo against the male-dominated system and the state is not only for Kurds but for all humanity. It is a manifesto of free life and free people. The prison writings are a guideline for the creation of a new free life based on democratic and social values.

The prison writings are being read all over the world within the framework of the global campaign initiated for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. Someone reading the prison writings must ask themselves a few questions: What kind of leadership is Rêber Apo? Why does the enemy fear him so much? Why does he have so many enemies? Why are all the states united against him when it comes to the question of leadership, law, politics, morality, conscience, and humanity? Why have so many forces mobilized to abduct him? Why are so many women and young people so devoted to him? How did Rêber Apo manage to be so influential internationally despite all the impossibilities?

Anyone who reads the prison writings will see how free Rêber Apo is, how much hope, strength, and courage he gives to oppressed peoples, women, and youth, and how much fear he creates in the ruling powers. Therefore, when one reads the prison writings, he/she must know what kind of truth and who we are reading. Through the prison writings, Rêber Apo shows the path to freedom. The answers to the questions of how a person can be strong, how to fight the enemy, how to be a comrade, how to become a free individual, and how to create a free society are contained in them. This is why the prison writings resemble a revolution of mentality. Accordingly, it is important that the reading of the prison writings is not limited to the framework of a few days or to the framework of a campaign. Without question, these were and are important moments, and I salute everyone who contributed to the organization of such joint actions, but it is also clear that much more is needed.

Rêber Apo is struggling under great isolation and under a system of genocide, but his ideas, spirit, and emotions are free. The capitalist system and the nation-state can never have an effect on him. But if we look at everyone else, including ourselves, we are all under the influence of the hierarchical and statist system to a certain point. In that sense, it is not Rêber Apo who needs freedom; we ourselves are much further away from it. But a person like Rêber Apo cannot be held in any prison. We must defeat the enemy, and defeating the enemy also means destroying the genocidal system. The enemy is not only the Turkish state but capitalist modernity, which is doomed to perish. Accordingly, we have a mission and a role to play. Our focus should be the physical freedom of Rêber Apo.

The aim of Rêber Apo is to build a new life, to create a new and free society. As the party and movement of Rêber Apo, we are based on his philosophy. We try to realize this philosophy in our daily lives, in our relationships, and in our work. Still, we do not limit ourselves only to this. The PKK is a party of cadres; we have a role and mission to save the Kurdish people from the clutches of genocide. We are trying to ensure that the Kurdish people can rise anew from the ashes of genocide, feudal culture, and the capitalist way of life. This is our duty and our responsibility. This is what the KCK system is for. As PKK cadres, we, like everyone else, read Rêber Apo and his philosophy. You can only represent Rêber Apo up to the point where you understand him. Accordingly, we try to change and develop and turn to society. It is about achieving a transformation within the framework of the democratic nation.

Rêber Apo has become the leader of all peoples, not just Kurds. But the problems of the Kurdish people and other peoples are different. Other peoples have different social problems, but the Kurdish people have an existential problem. In other words, the Kurdish people are fighting for existence and non-existence. The spirit, language, culture, and identity of the Kurdish people have been under attack for years. And the genocidal attacks against are not only cultural; there are also physical attacks. In the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Kurds were massacred in northern Kurdistan alone. In the four parts of Kurdistan, the Kurdish people are physically under the threat of genocide. The occupying Turkish state, with the support of the forces of capitalist modernity, wants to eradicate the Kurdish people by taking advantage of this period of the Third World War. The Kurdish people have many different problems and tasks, but the most crucial one is to preserve their existence. They must physically defend themselves and their country. The Kurdish people are being forced to migrate, and Kurdistan is being dehumanized through various policies. Against this, the Kurdish people must exercise self-defense in every field."

Ozgur Sherker

"First of all, I would like to salute the Imrali resistance of Rêber Apo. Rêber Apo’s resistance is not a classic resistance. Especially after the international conspiracy, Rêber Apo has developed a completely new form of struggle. The fact that Rêber Apo’s prison writings are now being read globally as part of the global campaign for his physical freedom, which was launched on October 10, 2023, is significant. The prison writings were the result of the great resistance of Rêber Apo in Imrali. Rêber Apo discussed the issues of state, democracy, politics, sociology, women, and youth at length. They are all important topics in his writings.

When the rulers and capitalist powers look at Kurdistan, they see oil and they see people they want to enslave, but when Rêber Apo looks at Kurdistan, he sees the cradle of humanity, the richness of human values, and the source of culture. Again, when the governments look at a human being, they approach them as if they were robots, robots are everywhere now with artificial intelligence, they don’t need humans anymore. They dehumanize human beings. But Rêber Apo, in the person of the Kurds, made a great breakthrough at a time when humanity was being trampled underfoot. The biggest proof of are the thousands of pages of the prison writings. Sometimes it can be very difficult to understand the prison writings. One has to face the reality, that Rêber Apo read and researched tens of thousands of pages to write these thousands of pages. He educated more than twenty thousand people, militants. The results of all this led to the prison writings. It is necessary to understand these writings as deeply as possible. Because the better one understands, the faster and the closer one will be to the truth.

There was the youth conference not long ago, in which not only people from Kurdistan and the Middle East participated but from 24 countries. As far as we were able to follow the discussions at the conference, there is a great effort to understand the views of Rêber Apo. In many countries, young people and women are talking about Rêber Apo, his ideas and paradigm. From North Africa to Latin America, this idea affects all peoples today. We do not satisfy ourselves with this, but no matter what the enemy does, he cannot suppress the power of Rêber Apo.

Today, Rêber Apo is being kept between four walls. The youth of Kurdistan should imagine every day this room of three to six meters with no air to breathe. There are psychological attacks every day in Imrali as part of the special warfare. Many international powers are involved, and they try to raise the pressure on Rêber Apo every day. The enemy has created such an environment. Rêber Apo’s power emerges in such difficult conditions. Still, for Rêber Apo, the walls of Imrali are nothing. To him, they are like a piece of paper. Because if we look at it today, the power of Rêber Apo has spread all over the world. His ideology emerged as a result of great efforts. The enemy is constantly complaining that the PKK is everywhere, that it is in Japan, in South Africa, and trying to get it banned everywhere. In fact, the PKK is spreading everywhere thanks to Rêber Apo. And this happens through his prison writings. The enemy sees that there is a great ideological power. Rêber Apo once described that “there is a worldwide intellectual stupidity.” Because there is no power of thought left in the world. The system creates people who do not educate their minds and hearts. On the contrary, the prison writings of Rêber Apo are a source of light, a source of freedom for humanity against this. This, of course, attracts people’s attention. That’s why people in South Africa are saying that they want to implement democratic confederalism in their country. When a Catalan reads the prison writings, he says, “These are my ideas too!” That is why the Turkish state imposes such strict isolation on Rêber Apo, but no matter what they do, they cannot prevent his ideology from spreading all over the world. Every thought, every idea of Rêber Apo is a manifesto. A person approached correctly can be a very valuable revolutionary. Therefore, as much as the enemy fears Rêber Apo, the people embrace him with great love, affection, and passion. We are convinced that Rêber Apo’s ideology will spread more and more. The main task here falls on us.

The most important responsibility and duty in the Kurdistan freedom struggle falls on the youth. It is not enough to simply say that you are young and that you are committed to Rêber Apo’s philosophy. This applies to the entire youth of Kurdistan, as well as to us. Because there is no comparison to the youthfulness in the PKK and elsewhere in the world. In all history, no revolutionary movement or national liberation struggle has ever consciously given the youth and women a pioneering role. This only came about with the ideology of Rêber Apo. Today, there are many parties in Turkey that have developed further thanks to Rêber Apo. For example, they have introduced quotas for women and young people. As much as Rêber Apo has influenced Kurdish society, he has also influenced Turkish society. This is something that we as the youth of Kurdistan need to better understand and appreciate.

Rosa Luxemburg once told Lenin that they should organize the youth separately, but Lenin said, 'If we make a revolution, the problems of the youth and women will be solved within.' Rêber Apo has overturned this understanding of revolution. The more a person struggles, the more he/she can become a fighter for freedom and a follower of Rêber Apo. The power of Rêber Apo lies not only in his thoughts but also in the thousands of pages he has written. Rêber Apo’s strength comes from his attitude, his struggle, and his resistance, which puts a stop to every form of surrender and betrayal. Now there are some who say that because fascism reigns, it is impossible to act, and it is best to remain covered and passive. But standing up for Rêber Apo’s philosophy means resisting and opposing all forms of persecution, oppression, and all attacks by the enemy. Nowadays, people have moved away from being human.

Such a situation has been created in Turkey that you feel ashamed when you watch the news. Nobody dares to tell the truth about what was done to an eight-year-old girl. How did it come to this? What kind of mentality is the result? This is the result of the AKP-MHP, the system, the state, and the corrupt mentality of five thousand years. Rêber Apo has developed an alternative to this. The fact that Rêber Apo is under such strict isolation today is precisely for this reason. If Rêber Apo had the opportunity to speak and to act, then such incidents would no longer be possible. It would no longer be possible to deceive society. That is why we, as young people, must implement Rêber Apo’s philosophy in our lives. In the current phase, the demand on us is that we play our part in the global campaign for Rêber Apo’s physical freedom. If we succeed in this, then we can indeed call ourselves Rêber Apo’s fedayîs."